Not there yet, but looking forward to it. The trick is to put the vacation message up *before* one reveals any major grades (even the ones for individual assignments). I tend to be a softie (as well as being realistic about my ability to screw up) and promise (and complete) a quick check-in or two for truly urgent queries before I disappear before the holidays, but I *will* disappear from Christmas to New Year's. Even if I could or would change their grades (I won't, unless there's an actual mistake), it can't be accomplished until the registrar is back from winter break. And most discussions of grades benefit from a substantial cooling-off period in between emails, I find. If there really is something to address, we'll do it in January (and if it's my mistake, they'll get a prompt promise that I will address it in January, and follow-through on that promise, but I'm not spending winter break discussing why Bs aren't B+s, B+s aren't A-s, and so on).

What Was This?

College Misery was a dysfunctional group blog where professors got the chance to release some of the frustration that built up while tending to student snowflakes, helicopter parents, money mad Deans, envious colleagues, and churlish chairpeople.

Our parent site, Rate Your Students, started in 2005, and we continued that mission beginning in 2010. Ben at Academic Water Torture and Kimmie at The Apoplectic Mizery Maker both ran support blogs during periods when this blog had died.